Well just finished playing it about 6 times as each team and even though I had lowered my expectations after reading a lot of the comments here, I still found myself feeling pretty apathetic to the demo. I'm in the same boat as those in the forum who felt releasing a demo with an easy only mode was a poor decision and would have had a definite negative impact on the 08 veterans, who have been leaning towards RC.
The sameiness of the gameplay with 08 wasn't great, but the problem is it resulted in a total absence of wow moments, where you got a buzz out of scoring an amazing try or pulled a win out against the odds, or just saw or did something NEW. Medium difficulty would probably have helped, but after playing a heavily modded 08 (on PC) intensively in the leadup to playing the demo there just wasn't enough there to really draw me in. It' not just that this offering is so light in terms of game modes, teams etc. but for 08 players there is also very little on offer in terms of gameplay changes as well.
IMO anyone who enjoys single player modes only will get next to nothing out of RWC11, it's saving grace may be its online, but even that's so bare bones, with virtually no multiplayer supporting mechanisms such as a basic leaderboard tracking wins and losses.
Onto other aspects of the demo.
Grpahics: not my cup of tea, all the players have strange builds with fat asses that sort of stick out and leaves them stuck in a pose which makes it look like they're trying to squeeze out a quiet one. They also appear to be packing semi boners or are wearing cod pieces under their shorts. I'll probably take a bit of stick for noting such details, but it looks strange and a bit creepy.
The stadiums looked too 'boxy' and artificial and the synchronised crowd detracted from the atmosphere/immersion. In 08 you sort of blocked out the stadium and crowd and forgot they even existed, RWC reminds you they are there and it's not a good thing in this case.
Animations: All the same from 08. Sure they have tweaked them slowed some down, sped some up, but its just too similar to provide any excitement or enjoyment seeing the same old animations you've been playing with for 4 or so years. A complete new mocap needed to be done IMO to update and freshen up the onscreen action. In a sport with so much dynamic contact seeing the same animations for years and years gets very very boring.
Gameplay: nuff said above I believe. Also should throw my vote in with those saying kicking physics felt better in 08, bounce of the ball in RWC is very unnatural. Lineouts in 08 for me were better, at least there was something to do, in 2011 dumbing down this component in a game that is already too familiar just felt unneccessary and unwelcome. Attempted to try some of the new gameplay features, but the easy difficulty makes them so unnecessary that you end up feeling as if you are forcing yourself to do them for the sake of it.
Many on this forum may recall making up rules for themselves on 08 to make it more difficult (such as never changing your player), using the new features had the same forced feeling.
Sound: Good job here, captures the atmosphere with the music and crowd chants and tolerable commentary. Really sticks out though against the rest of the game which is of a much lower quality.
If there was no alternative, being the rugby fan I am I would have still got this game simply out of desperation. I was disillusioned with what I had seen of RWC so far after being a big 06 and 08 supporter and the demo did nothing to improve that opinion. I had very little actual 'fun' playing it, the same way I feel about 08 now after 4 years of playing that and RWC felt like I'd never left (not a good thing). I may still pick it up if RC is absolute rubbish in the gameplay department AND I can get it for less that $30NZD.